With the initiative of the United Nations, the World Environment Day was established in 1972, with the first day of Stockholm Conference, on Jun. 05, as the particular day of significance. The First World Environment Day was held in 1973, with the theme ‘Only One Earth’. To create awareness and take actions against the strain on our eco-system of our mother-nature, we began to celebrate it annually on June. 5, since 1974, with different ‘themes’ in every year. With due respect to the original theme of the First World Environment Day, ‘Only One Earth’ – focusing on sustainability in harmony with our nature, in 2022, Sweden hosted the mark of 50 years. In 2023, we celebrate the 50th Anniversary, with the theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ (#BeatPlasticPollution), hosted by Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), in partnership with the Netherlands.

Environment is our earth, our natural world, consisting of our surroundings in the geographical area, where the living things, such as humans, animals, plants, and other creatures survive; as well as having the non-living things, such as natural resources, physical factors, chemical factors, etc. remain making the environment effective and affective, with a healthy eco-system – providing us climate, sunlight, water, air, and soil – leading to gain the energy and materials needed to sustain.

We, humans, as an important part of the environment, are supposed to contribute to protect and safeguard the environment with maximum positive energies. For our survival we do the production and consumption activities, leading to generation of garbage as a part of the process. Most of the garbage in this process are supposed to be get rid of by the natural process of environment without any emissions. It is our responsibility to manage the garbage, specifically, which are not getting rid of; to protect our environment, otherwise, may lead us along with the other living things difficult for survival. As a part of our processes, we have plastics, constituting to garbage, making emissions, adversely affecting our environment. Let’s come together to ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’.

BeatPlasticPollution

With the invention of Plastic in 1860s, subsequently with its developments and applicability in advanced usage, in all aspects of life, plastic in variety of forms, has become an unavoidable part of general life. Now, the plentiness of plastics have become a burden on earth, as they turn into wastes, having emissions having adverse impacts to our environment affecting the climate.

Beat Plastic Pollution : With the concern of serious impacts of plastics, promoting production of Bio-plastics may be an option, as an alternative. More priority has to be given for research on the Plastic Wastes, for controlling the pollution, due to the emissions from plastics. We have to take more care and consideration for recycling the plastic wastes, and to reduce the usage of plastics. With the indigenous as well as the advanced technology to recycle, we come across with the used and outdated plastic items as Wastes, such as; House hold Wastes, Industrial Wastes, Commercial Wastes, and Wastes from many Other Sources. To bring down the pollution by plastic wastages, by adopting a convenient and accessible system, let’s come together to promote :

Reduction of plastic products – as per the scientific norms.
Exploring the possibilities of Plant-derived Plastics.
Paper products instead of plastics, wherever applicable (eg. Bags, etc.)
Beautification of streets encouraging planting more trees and gardens, along with fruits & vegetable production
To Plant more trees, keep surroundings clean, reduce pollution, save water, and reduce deforestation.
Recycling on domestic / house-hold level, regional / local level, State / National level, and Corporate Level
Recycling the recyclables on a regular basis, Maintaining separate containers for trashes, Removing the removable on a regular basis, Maintaining Clean sanitization facilities, and Dumping the wastages / garbage safely according to its nature.
Conventional earthen pots / other alternatives, reducing the usage of plastic products.

By promoting all these, we can keep our earth clean from the emissions of plastics, bringing the pollution under control.

Research Required : Plastics being the wastes with emissions, let’s consider research on :

advanced recycling facilities of plastics : – for assembling in blankets, sweaters, woolen coats, rain coats, dress materials, umbrellas, beds, door-mats, boundary walls, bricks, building materials, fences, pet-cages, etc. – if / as applicable.
used plastics to use in road renovations, along with tarring, road-side-walls, road-dividers, use in sides of streets for flowing waste-water, etc.
for conversion of the wastes derived after sufficient recycling of the original plastic wastes – to fill the gutters in roads, make the side-ways / foot-paths, make the roads, etc.
recycling facilities to generate energy.
any possibilities of pollution in the long-run on production / generation of bio-gas / bio-diesel / bio-plastics, etc.

Besides the conventional and scientific ideas of recycling, there are many old items, not only plastics, which can be converted into show-pieces, with creative minds.

Let’s make our environment healthy, making ourselves healthy, providing us : Better, healthy, disease-free life for humans and all living creatures, Hygienic atmosphere, Tourism development, making earnings for better living, and more. With better environment, protection of trees provides better atmospheric support to human kind as well as to other living creatures

UNEP : We have UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the global authority for the environment with programmes focusing on Climate, Nature, Pollution, sustainable Development, etc. to draw attention to our Environmental Protection and its concerns.

Control on Climate Change : For the control on Climate Change, stipulating the global ceilings for greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in December 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The first ever Climate Change Agreement, adopted in December 2015, the Paris Agreement (also referred as Paris Accords / Paris Climate Accords), an international treaty on climate change, sets out an initiative to control climate change by limiting global warming to below 2o C., and pursuing efforts to bring down it to 1.5 o C. EU and 193 States signed the Agreement with a pledge to reduce their emissions to combat global warming. All the participating countries will report their progress on the goals of the agreement for the first year in 2023, since their initiative.

Healthy Environment : The world of developing countries depends purely on environment for their livelihood and hence their health; and providing them economic growth. When the environment is healthy, the people of the land can expect pure water, natural food and pure air. For the better results of a Healthy Environment, we have to avoid : Soil degradation, Over-exploitation of natural resources, Bio-diversity loss, Deforestation, Desertification, Ocean acidification and Natural hazards. A healthy, better, unspoiled environment with abundant green spaces, forests, rivers, oceans, other water resources, etc. are always good – for better life, healthy life, satisfied life, social life, professional life, education, and all human-life enjoyments with quality life.

Emissions : Beyond the wastages of household activities, there are high volume of emissions and wastages, which may pollute the environment such as industrial emissions, vehicle emissions, and more, due to the rapid urbanization, growing industrialization, and other destructive human activities; which have to be considered seriously for the protection of our nature. We individually and collectively can protect our environment to avoid the pollution, by adopting a convenient and accessible system by :

Recycling the recyclables on a regular basis
Maintaining separate containers for trashes
Removing the removable on a regular basis
Dumping the wastages / garbage according to its nature
Maintaining Clean sanitization facilities
Avoiding the plastics and plastic products
Reusing the wastages for eco-friendly gas generation

Initiative : The impact of plastic pollution has to be adopted as a part of education system, from the bottom level, with practical initiatives. An initiative for regular awareness programmes in the bottom level, from children to elders, required to impart the knowledge on the realities of the adverse future to our environment. Besides, as the world is always growing and we are in the transformation of 4th Industrial Revolution, we always advance into next level with novel ideas with innovations and advanced technologies. The youth always have to be very cautious, energetic and motivated to understand the after effects of any pollution and destruction to our environment and have to adopt advanced technologies and take initiative to prevent and control the pollution and destruction, to protect our environment. More than that of putting our efforts to beat the pollution, let’s get together to keep our planet clean…

With Beat Plastic Pollution, let’s celebrate our World Environment Day with ‘Clean Environment’ to make our planet a happier place to live forever.

Plant more trees, keep surroundings clean, avoid / reduce pollution, save water, and reduce deforestation.